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Tonight was a very interesting class. Just like on Monday,. the training was fast and furious. Sensei has graced us all by letting someone else teach while he trains with us which is cool because trainging with Sensei is totally different then watching him teach.

There was a new guy that I also saw on Monday. He said tonight was his 3rd class. Towards the end of the class the instructor let us do randori and I volunteered to work with the new guy. He wasn't familiar with randori so I told him we would go slow and then I pulled back to start attacking him. Right when I was about to attack he looked at me and very calmly said "I can't defend myself."

That one simple statement stopped me dead in my tracks. I definitely should have let him attack me first. But the profound effect it had on me is really related to the nature of violence and attacking someone in general.

He stopped me just by saying that. It was so incredible that I didn't know what to do. I know the way I'm describing this sounds very dramatic, admittedly I am trying to paint the picture that way because this incident really made me think.

It made me think about the non-physical Aikido that is just as important as any physical technique. He very much tried to appeal to my rational side by saying this. In translating, what he really said was "Why would you attack someone who can't defend themselves?".

I was simply amazed by what he had taught me. After 5 years of studying, in one single moment he summed up everything I want to learn.